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Virginia Tech

Fuzz Testing Architecture Used for Vulnerability Detection in Wireless Systems

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The wireless world of today is essential to the everyday life of millions of people. Wireless technology is evolving at a rapid pace that's speed outmatches what the previous testing can handle. This necessitates the need for smarter and faster testing methods. One of the recent fast and efficient testing methods is fuzz testing. Fuzz testing is the generation and injection of unexpected input called "fuzzed" input for a system by slightly changing a base input hundreds or even thousands of times and introducing each change into a system to observe its effects. In this thesis, we developed and implemented a fuzz testing architecture to test 5G wireless system vulnerabilities. The proposed design uses multiple open-source software to create a virtual wireless environment for testing the fuzzed inputs' effects on the wireless attach procedure. Having an accessible and adaptable fuzzing architecture to use with wireless networks will help against malicious parties. Due to 5G simulation technology still being developed and the cost of ready-made 5G testing equipment, the architecture was implemented in an LTE environment using the srsRAN LTE simulation software, the Boofuzz fuzzing software, and Wireshark packet capture software. The results show consistent effects of the fuzz testing on the outputs of the LTE eNB. We also include a discussion of our future suggestions to improve the proposed fuzzing architecture.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Computer Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2022

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Mayhew, Stephen Richard
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Reed, Jeffrey H.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Wang, Ying
  • Dietrich, Carl B.

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
vt_gsexam:35006
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/110927

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Mayhew, Stephen Richard. Fuzz Testing Architecture Used for Vulnerability Detection in Wireless Systems. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/110927